


Wobbly

by WhatsYourNameMan



Series: It’s not Sunset Cis either [17]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Coming Out, Fluff, Gen, Nonbinary Character, Questioning, Rated T for language, Skating, Trans Alex Mercer, Trans Character, Trans Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Trans Reggie Peters, demigirl Flynn, flynn is a rollerskater, he/they willie, none of the Phantoms are cis and I think that's beautiful, she/they flynn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:15:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28787028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatsYourNameMan/pseuds/WhatsYourNameMan
Summary: “That’s the thing,” Flynn groans. “When I try to figure it out, all I feel is… wobbly.”Willie raises an eyebrow, not in judgement, just not quite understanding. “Wobbly?”“Yeah. Like when you try skating for the first time, and you have to keep shifting back and forth to find your balance. Some days I lean really heavily towards ‘girl,’ and then other days I fall over towards ‘non-binary,’ and I just can’t find the balance.”
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn & Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters & Willie, Flynn & Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: It’s not Sunset Cis either [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2022667
Comments: 12
Kudos: 151





	Wobbly

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't read the rest of the series, Willie was alive 1972-1989, they use he and they pronouns, and they live with Tía Victoria after she exorcised Caleb to save him. 
> 
> This one was inspired by aroallosuperemacy on tumblr.
> 
> Title from "Wobbly" by Ezra Furman (which everyone should listen to). The “It’s not Sunset Cis either” playlist can be found [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5Jhsn0cg0JZskwAGwc6ZXP?si=-SUrLQPgS_mbtwaUzl2tcQ%E2%80%9C).

Willie knew from the beginning that Alex and the boys were a package deal. He could see it in the way Alex talked about them, exasperated and annoyed, but fond in a way that screamed _I don’t know what I’d do without them._ Then, they noticed the way Alex talked about Julie: significantly less annoyed, and significantly more fond. So Julie was part of the package too, and Willie was more than ready to accept that if someday he ever managed to become visible long enough to meet her. 

Flynn, however, was a surprise. 

He met her the same day he met Julie, and Alex had talked about her before, but not in a way that prepared Willie for how attached all the boys were to her. According to them, Flynn had only been able to see them for a couple of days, but she was the world’s best manager so of course they had already adopted her as their little sister. 

And after a few days of knowing her, Willie _got_ it. As the two non-musician members of the band, Flynn and Willie hung out a lot during rehearsals and gigs. They had a lot in common for two kids born in vastly different decades, and their senses of humor matched perfectly. They never really got a chance to hang out one on one, however, not quite having reached that level of friendship. 

Which is why Willie is once again pleasantly surprised by Flynn when she marches up to them after rehearsal one day and asks if they’ll take her to their favorite skatepark. 

“I just got these new roller skates and I want to try them out,” she says, showing Willie a picture of a brightly-colored pair of skates. 

“Sure, that sounds awesome,” Willie grins. “Have you skated before?” 

“Yeah, but it’s been a while. I totaled my old pair a couple years ago and I finally saved up enough to replace them.”

“Right on. We could do Saturday, maybe get some lunch after?”

“Sounds great,” Flynn says, giving him a quick hug before waving goodbye to the others and bouncing out of the studio.

Saturday morning rolls around and he meets Flynn at the studio. They have breakfast with the band before rehearsal, and Willie gives Alex a quick kiss before he poofs himself and Flynn to his favorite park (landing in the bushes, of course, to avoid being seen).

Flynn’s a little rusty at first, but once she gets back into it, even Willie is impressed with her skills. 

“You didn’t tell me you were this good,” they say, watching her do a handstand on the lip of the bowl before dropping back down to her wheels. 

“Didn’t want to make you feel bad,” she shrugs. 

“Excuse me?” Willie asks, pressing a hand to his chest in feigned offense. “I’ve been skating for thirty-six years. I’m taking it easy on you.”

Flynn quirks an eyebrow at them. “Prove it.” 

They spend the next few hours aggressively trying to one up each other with their tricks. Flynn keeps up remarkably well. Willie is just starting to worry he may not actually be able to win this when Flynn trips and falls, her knees sliding against the concrete.

“Fine,” she concedes, “you win. But now that I’m back in the game you better watch your back.”

Willie laughs and helps her stand up. “I’m _so_ scared,” they say with an eye roll. 

“You should be.” Flynn glances down at her shins, which are scraped up and bloody. “Damn”

“C’mon,” Willie chuckles. He sits her down on a bench and pulls some antiseptic and a bandaid out of his pocket. 

“Why do you still have those?” Flynn asks as he cleans up her scrapes. “Aren’t you basically invincible?” 

“Force of habit,” Willie shrugs. “But if you want to complain about it, I can just leave you to treat your own wounds.”

She shoves their shoulder and rolls her eyes. “Fine. Work your magic, Nurse Willie.” 

He finishes bandaging her up and they return to the bowl, but the air between them is much less competitive now. They just skate back and forth across the bowl, keeping time with each other and chatting. 

“Hey Willie?” Flynn asks after a while. “You’re non-binary, right?”

“Um, I guess,” Willie responds. “I don’t really call myself that, but I’m not a guy or a girl, if that’s what you’re asking.” 

“Oh,” Flynn says. “Sorry.”

Willie can feel her starting to retreat from the conversation, so he sends her a reassuring smile. “What’s up?”

Flynn hesitates before responding, “I’m just... confused, I guess.” 

“About me or about you?” 

“Both?” 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Willie catches the look of apprehension on Flynn’s face, so they quickly add, “Or I can talk about me, if that would help?” 

Flynn thinks about it for a second, then nods. “Could you?”

“Sure,” Willie nods. “I never really fit into ‘boy’ or ‘girl,’ you know? I wasn’t uncomfortable being seen as a boy, I’m still not, but I just never really considered myself to be one. Honestly, I didn’t really think about gender at all until Julie bought me that skirt, which made me realize I should probably figure out what it meant that I didn’t see myself as a guy.” 

“And it meant that you’re… neither?” 

“Pretty much,” Willie shrugs. “When I came out to Alex I told him that I’m just me. And I guess part of being me is that I look like a boy and don’t really care if people see me that way, but _I_ know that I’m not one, and that’s what matters.”

Flynn hums and takes a moment to absorb this. “I guess I sort of feel that way,” she admits. “Like, I like being feminine, but I don’t really see myself as a girl. But I want a word for it. I know it’s enough for you to be _just you_ , but I don’t think it is for me.”

“That’s cool,” Willie says. “We could feel the exact same way and still not use the same words, you know? Labels aren’t important to me, but that’s ‘cause I didn’t have words like non-binary growing up. By the time I learned, I’d already been _just me_ for decades. It didn’t feel worth it to change.”

Flynn nods. “That makes sense.”

Willie glances over and notices she’s still frowning. “You don’t sound satisfied.”

Flynn lets out a long sigh. “I just don’t even know if non-binary is the right word.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” Willie says. “What do you feel is right, in your gut?”

“That’s the thing,” Flynn groans. “When I try to figure it out, all I feel is… wobbly.”

Willie raises an eyebrow, not in judgement, just not quite understanding. “Wobbly?”

“Yeah. Like when you try skating for the first time, and you have to keep shifting back and forth to find your balance. Some days I lean really heavily towards ‘girl,’ and then other days I fall over towards ‘non-binary,’ and I just can’t find the balance.”

“I get that,” Willie says. “There are some days where I’d really prefer for people to only use they/them pronouns for me. It doesn’t happen often, though.”

“It does for me,” Flynn says. “I feel like it’s constantly changing.”

Willie thinks for a moment. “Have you considered genderfluid?”

“Extensively. It still doesn’t feel right.”

Willie skids to a stop and kicks his skateboard up. “Well, hey. What do you say we go to lunch and do some research?” 

Flynn rolls to a stop next to him. “That sounds great.” She skates over to the bench to start unlacing her skates. “You’re buying.”

“I’m dead,” Willie protests. “What money do you think I have?”

“I know you stole from your demon sugar daddy—“

“ _Never_ call Caleb that again—“

“My point is, you’re rolling in it, and you can’t hide that from me.” Flynn grabs her skates by the laces and slings them over her shoulder, holding a hand out to Willie. “Let’s go, ghosty.”

Willie rolls their eyes and grabs Flynn’s hand, poofing the two of them out of the skatepark. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

They spend the better part of an hour eating in silence, both of them hunched over their respective phones searching various LGBT websites, blogs, and forums. Occasionally, Willie finds a term that sounds vaguely like what Flynn described, but she quickly dismisses all of their suggestions. 

After about fifty minutes, Flynn lets out a little gasp and starts slapping Willie’s arm. They raise an amused eyebrow at her. 

“Find something?”

She nods, a fire in her eyes. “Demigirl.”

Willie frowns. “I don’t know that one. What does it mean?”

She slides the phone over so he can read the page she’s found, but she explains anyways. “It’s like, I’m more closely aligned with female, but I’m not fully a woman.”

Willie nods and shoots her a grin, their eyes scanning the article for any more important information. “Righteous.” They put a hand on Flynn’s shoulder. “I’m so happy for you, Flynn.”

She beams and pulls him into a hug. “Thanks for helping me figure it out. I know I kind of dropped all this on you out of nowhere.”

“Nah,” Willie shrugs. “That’s what friends are for.” They pull away from the hug. “Do you know if you want to do anything about name or pronouns?”

“I think I want to do what you do,” Flynn says. “Use she and they pronouns. But no way in hell I’m changing my name. I’ve got a brand to stick to.”

Willie giggles. “I like the way you think. You ready to head back?”

Flynn nods and holds out their hand, and Willie poofs them back into the studio, where the band is still rehearsing, no doubt a result of a mixture between Luke’s insistence and Alex’s anxiety about their gig tonight. 

“Hey guys,” Julie says, looking up from the sheet music spread in front of her. “How was it?”

“Enlightening,” Flynn grins. “Willie helped me figure some stuff out.”

“Yeah? Like what?” Luke asks, and Alex elbows him for his lack of tact. 

“You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to,” Alex says. 

“No, it’s cool,” Flynn says. They glance at Willie, who gives them an encouraging smile. They take a deep breath and look into Julie’s eyes as they admit, “I’m a demigirl, and I’d like to use they/them and she/her pronouns from now on.”

“So I was right!” Reggie crows. “Julie _is_ the token cis.” He stops, and frowns. “I don’t really know what demigirl means though.”

“We’ll chat later,” Flynn says, and Reggie beams and gives them a thumbs up.

Julie pulls Flynn into a hug. “You know I love you,” she says, “but are we going to talk about how you told Willie before me?”

“Token cis,” Reggie reminds her, and Alex thumps him on the chest. “Rude,” Reggie mumbles, rubbing the sore spot.

“You know I trust you more than anything, Jules,” Flynn says. “I just figured Willie was the expert.”

“You’re probably right,” Julie admits. “I’m just happy you figured it out.”

“Me too,” Flynn grins. They pulls their hands away from Julie and grab Willie, pulling him down to sit on the couch with them. They clap their hands at the rest of the band. “Now get back to work. Mama needs _their_ eye candy.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are much appreciated if you enjoyed :)
> 
> I'm wr0temyway0ut on tumblr if you want to come chat about these ghosties or request a fic for this series.


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